An IPTV (Internet protocol television) is a brand-new technology which uses a broadband cable television network, integrates multiple technologies, including the Internet, multi-media, communication and the like, transmits multi-media data, such as television, a video, a text, and an image through an IP (Internet protocol) network, and provides family users with multiple interactive services including digital television. A user may enjoy an IPTV service through a computer, or in a manner of a network set top box+an ordinary television set.
In recent years, with an increase in the number of network users, IPv4 (Internet protocol version 4) addresses are gradually used up, and a service adopting an IPv4 network cannot keep growing, unless it is migrated to an IPv6 network. Because in the IPTV technology, data is transmitted through the IP network, during a process of migrating from IPv4 to IPv6, an IPTV service management system needs to adapt to a scenario in which networks and devices of IPv4 and the IPv6 coexist.
Currently, the IPTV service management system mainly adapts to the scenario in which the networks and the devices of IPv4 and the IPv6 coexist by using an ALG (application layer gateway). As shown in FIG. 1, a user terminal is a multicast receiver, such as an STB (set top box) or a computer. The ALG has an interworking capability of the IPv4 network and the IPv6 network and an application layer function. When receiving an IPv4-to-IPv6 (or IPv6-to-IPv4) multicast address mapping request sent by an EPG (electronic program guides) device, the ALG may generate a mapping table from an IPv4 (or IPv6) multicast address to an IPv6 (or IPv4) multicast address according to a mapping rule of the ALG and a corresponding table of the received IPv4 (or IPv6) multicast address and a channel, and send the mapping table to the EPG device, so that the EPG device generates the corresponding table of the IPv6 (or IPv4) multicast address and the channel according to the mapping table. Or the ALG intercepts a response packet that an EPG device responds to an electronic program guides request of the multicast receiver, generates an IPv6 (or IPv4) multicast address and a channel mapping table according to a mapping rule of the ALG, the intercepted corresponding table of the IPv4 (or IPv6) multicast address and the channel, and obtained version information of the multicast receiver, and then sends the corresponding table of the IPv6 (or IPv4) multicast address and the channel to the multicast receiver. It should be noted that, in the prior art, it is required that the EPG device is a dual-stack device, or there are two EPG (an IPv4 EPG and an IPv6 EPG) devices, so as to send IPv4 program guides to a user terminal only supporting IPv4, and send IPv6 program guides to a user terminal only supporting IPv6. Moreover, it is required that a network device has the application layer capability, and therefore the device is complex and has a high performance requirement.
During a process of implementing the present application, the inventor discovers that there are at least the following problems existing in the prior art. For example, the EPG device needs to interact with the ALG, causing complex processing of a correspondence between the channel and the multicast address by the EPG device, which is not beneficial for migrating the IPTV service management system from IPv4 to IPv6. In addition, a gateway device of the IPv4 network and a gateway device of the IPv6 network need to have the ALG capability and, therefore, the device is complex and there is a high performance requirement on the gateway device.